Stars in a Time Warp

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About Me

I've owned my quilt shop since 1990, specializing in antique reproduction fabrics. Made my first quilt in 1976 which greatly reduced my sewing of clothing! Would like to find more time to SEW.......maybe when I retire? Am married to a farmer, have 3 children and 4 grandchildren who are the light of my life!!! And now there are 3 great-grandchildren and another due in January 2019!

Ann Robinson Bedcover
-
This bedcover is one of the earliest quilts in the Shelburne Museum
collection, and is on the cover of the book Enduring Grace, Quilts from the
Shelburn...

5 years ago

Sunday, February 23, 2014

A Great New Book and Some Quilt Progress

Love this new book! You will too if you like to study old fabrics!

Got this book a couple weeks ago and immediately sat down and turned pages for 2 hours...lots to study and read! The number of prints and the wonderful colors are unbelievable! Can't wait until I have time to get back to it! First fabric I found pictured that I have a reproduction of is the blue Olde Sturbridge Village Collection #1. Will find more to show you soon!

Cutting more 4.5" Hexagons for my Charm Quilt......Have 50 cut and another 50 or so drawn and ready to be cut.......just need to find the minutes!! Uninterrupted minutes!! Working on my eighth row of 20, so that's about 160 different fabrics used so far! Will need nearly 400 for an 80" x 80" quilt. Have come across two duplicates so will need to watch that! It's hard, tho, when so many gorgeous fabrics are my Favorites!! That little strip above the hexagon goes into the log cabin/railfence box and the little triangles are now saved in a bandbox for the tiny 2" paper-pieced Pineapple blocks from the new Kansas City Star book "Kindred Spirits".

Have had kind of a dry spell concerning machine stitching since Dec 23 when a falling limb tore the service wires off the side of the house and created a power surge! Am surprised at the number of things that survived but we had to replace a dozen or so items. My Bernina that I am SO Bonded to will survive as it is Fixable! Thank God! We have been together 24 years....we work together as a Team!! I'll bet there are lots of you out there who are just as comforable with your machine! However, I did become re-acquainted with my old Singer 301 and one of the Featherweights so that is a good thing. Have been doing somewhat mindless sewing......the little 3.75" log cabin blocks (Need 400 for a 75" x 75" quilt.....have only 95), 3" railfence blocks (Need 576 for a 72" x 72" quilt and have 220), and 10" log cabin block (Need 90 and have 65......this quilt needs to be done for a customer by summer and it is looking like I will make it!) Will take a photo of the 10" blocks for next time! Have been able to make these blocks with no cutting as I keep finding boxes of 1.5" strips hiding under other "stuff" that I place in the box! Have now consolidated the Three boxes I found into one ......12" x 18" x 23" tall and full to the brim so I will be able to make blocks for a long time to come! We all seem to have a favorite block to make and I guess mine is log cabin!

Following along the log cabin thread, here is an old piece of 4 Pineapple blocks from the turn of the 19th century. It has lovely fabrics and looks great on my dining room tablecloth. Unfinished......someone had put a light blue sateen backing and lace around the edges but I like the look of the plain blocks. The lady who made this block was able to co-ordinate fabrics/colors....each round is made of the same 4 fabrics, the centers & corners are the same fabric, and the solid blue and brown fabrics frame the center/corners. The grey/red fabric used in the center/corners was very popular and we have seen it in numerous quilts in the Maine Quilt Documentation. You can see the same fabric but with tan in place of the red in the closeup. Fabric also came with bright blue flowers.

Guess that is it until next time! Hope it is not so long between posts!

16 comments:

I am hand-piecing the Hexagons.....sure going a lot faster than the Applecore quilt started in 1994! Only a couple more rows and it will be finished. Piecing the straight seams of the Hexagons vs the curved seams of the Applecore is SO much easier and faster!

Thank you! And I can imagine. That is the reason I will probably never make an applecore quilt, even though I like the look of one. So many other, easier patterns/forms to chose from, like these haxagons!

I found your blog very inspirational. I have several projects in similar stages. However, I hadn't thought of actually figuring out how many more blocks I need to make and then writing it down. This would let me know that the end is in sight. Thanks a lot.

Looks like a great book!You are tenacious with these long-term projects. They will be amazing quilts.Love seeing that old pineapple piece. One day I will stop just making two inch pineapple ornaments and maybe actually make a pineapple quilt. : )